Hot Hands
Everything We Have is Broken
Independent Release, 2012
One easily dismiss this boy-girl garage duo as just another in the long line of loud, annoying White Stripes wannabes. But one would be selling Hot Hands short.
Lo-fi reverb hasn’t been this much fun since you bought that stack of mono 45 rpm’s by bands you’d never heard of at a yard sale for $2. The low fidelity recording doesn’t irritate me, but there’s a really uneven quality to the recording here that varies greatly from track to track. This could’ve been easily sorted out by having someone master the songs for balance and uniformity.
There are 6 songs here — and a few of them pack a serious punch. “Your Short Hair” is a great slab of noise that’s hard to discern who’s saying what, but memorable nonetheless. But buried deep on this release is “Never Been Kissed,” which sounds like it could’ve been culled from the original demos DEVO recorded on a 4 track back in ’77. This kids, is serious business. This is the song that ends up being played so many times you start to get sick of it, but as soon as it’s pulled from rotation you begin to miss it.
“Your Perfect Catchphrase,” is sloppy, messy, overplayed racous roll in the backseat. The sort of music you want playing during that final grudgefuck with an ex you can’t stand being with or without.
Guitarist Jeff Howard and drummer Kristin Messina have made a memorable blast of noise to disturb your silence and you should play it loud enough to annoy your neighbors.